SEC524: Cloud Security Fundamentals Waitlist

I believe this is the best cloud security out there that is extremey well balanced with relevant labs and provides a solid understanding of cloud security risks as more organizations are moving towards cloud.

Srinath Kannan, Accenture

This SANS training course, Cloud Security Fundamentals (SEC524), starts out with a detailed introduction to the various delivery models of cloud computing, ranging from Software as a Service (SaaS) to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and everything in between. Each of these delivery models represent an entirely separate set of security conditions to consider, especially when coupled with various cloud types, including public, private and hybrid. An overview of security issues within each of these models will be covered with an in-depth discussion of the risks involved. This cloud security training course will go in-depth on architecture and infrastructure fundamentals for private, public and hybrid clouds, including a wide range of topics such as patch and configuration management, virtualization security, application security and change management. Policy, risk assessment and governance within cloud environments will also be covered, with recommendations for both internal policies and contract provisions. This path leads to a discussion of compliance and legal concerns. The first day will wrap up with disaster recovery and business continuity planning using cloud models and architecture.

Day 2 of this cloud security training course will start with the challenges of identity and access management in cloud environments. Next, more businesses are utilizing the cloud to store critical data and we will cover how to protect your critical data in the cloud. New approaches for data encryption, network encryption, key management and data lifecycle concerns will be covered in detail, followed by a deep dive into risk assessments and risk management. Intrusion detection and incident response in cloud environments will also be covered, along with how best to manage these critical security processes and the technologies that support them given that most controls are managed by the CSP.

Additional Information

Laptop Required

SEC524 requires a laptop running Microsoft Windows (Minimum Version 7) or a Mac (Macintosh) operating system with the following requirements:

1.5 GHz 64-bit processor (higher is recommended)

4GB RAM (More memory is highly recommended)

25 GB free hard disk space

USB Port

Wireless network adapter

Microsoft Office or OpenOffice and a PDF reader application

If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact laptop_prep@sans.org.

Who Should Attend

Security personnel who are currently tasked with assessing the technical risks of cloud computing

Network and systems administrators who currently manage private clouds or need to leverage hybrid and/or public cloud services

Technical auditors and consultants who need to gain a deeper understanding of cloud computing and security concerns

Security and IT managers who need to understand the risks of cloud computing and advise business management of the risks and various approaches involved

What You Will Receive

In this course, you will receive the following:

MP3 audio files of the complete course lecture

You Will Be Able To

Build a risk-based assessment program for cloud providers' controls

Understand the key areas to focus on in cloud contracts

Evaluate the various layers of cloud infrastructure

Develop a cloud disaster recovery and business continuity plan

Perform vulnerability assessments in a cloud environment

Integrate encryption and identity management services in a cloud environment

Improve your incident response and monitoring capabilities in the cloud

Author Statement

The cloud is everywhere! Well, that is what the marketing folks would have us believe, anyway. Migrating systems, applications and data to the cloud presents a new set of challenges for security professionals to tackle. What kind of policies do we need, and how can we work with legal teams to incorporate language into contracts? How can we protect sensitive data with encryption, intrusion detection and prevention, and host and network access controls? Can we extend identity and access management tools and processes into the cloud?

Fundamentally, the cloud represents a move into environments where security teams are giving up some measure of control over how data and applications are protected. Due to capital and operational cost savings issues, cloud-based services are becoming more attractive to business and organization leaders, and security teams will need to understand their options when presenting the risks to management. Our goal with SEC524: Cloud Security Fundamentals is to arm security teams with the knowledge they need to assess risks in moving to the cloud. Managers, auditors, and systems and network administrators will also benefit, as we will delve into the technologies available for securing cloud-based assets while covering all the policies, processes and compliance considerations that go along with this major technology shift.